AND HORTICULTURAL REGISTER. 



PUBLISHED BY JOSEPH BRECK & CO., NO. 62 NOllTH MARKET STREET, (AoBicnLToaAL WAnEHousE.) 



„XXII.] 



BOSTON, WEDNRSDAY EVENING, NOVEMBER 15, 1843. 



[NO. 80. 



N. E. FARMER 



Foi- (he N. E. Fanner. 



QR STOCK— IMPROVEMENT OF, &c. 



1r Breck — The free discussion in the agricul- 



1 journals, of the unsettled qiie-slions pertainini,' 



nriciilture — the best nietliod for enriching soil, 



ivalini crops, improving stock, &.C. — cannot be 



much encouraged ; and all who have experi- 



! and ability, should regard it as a duty they 



their fellows, to contribute something toward-s 



inij these disputed points — always keeping in 



d that the end in view is truth, and that the 



ns employed to attain and establish it, should 



:haractcrized by candor and fairness. 



he discussion of such topics in the agricultural 



•nals, is rendered the more agreeable by the 



that it may be conducted without the inanifes- 



on of any of that acerbity, or the use of any of 



56 reproachful epithets so common (but unneces- 



/) in the discussion of politics and other matters. 



•Error of opinion may be safely tolerated while 



son is left free to combat it," was the truthful 



in" of ■' the sage of Monticello" — and among 



thren of the plow, iiaviiig in view the same 



at end — the highest improvement of their noble 



no other than the most friendly feeling should 



st, however much one may deem another to err 

 opinion upon any controverted point pertaining 

 ;heir pursuit. 



With a perfect freedom, then, (in practice of what 

 lave preached,] from any asperity of le.Tiper, al- 

 V me, sir, to notice briefly some of the positions 

 the writer cl the article copied in your last num- 

 r from the " Farmer's Monthly Visitor," entitled 

 )ur own Breeds of Cattle." And let me here 

 jmise, that I should value my own views in oppo- 

 ion to liis, far less, were they not supported 

 others whose experience gives great weight to 

 >ir counsel. 



The best means to adopt for the improvement of 

 r stock, is certainly a matter of no secondary 

 portance ; and all suggestions in regard to it, 

 ming from practical men, are entitled to respect- 

 1 consideration. The views of the writer alluded 

 on this subject, appear to me, in the main, to be 

 sed on a false presumption. He writes as if our 

 rmers were, or had been, advised (by u-hom I can- 

 it conceive,) to get rid of all their native stock 

 id supply its place with imported animals ! This 

 ea pervades his article. Now if any one has 

 ade this recommendation publicly, I am not aware 

 ' it — though the writer treats it as if it were a 

 atter of notoriety. I am, and have been, an at- 

 mtive reader of the principal agricultural jour- 

 ils, but I do not recollect such a recomiuendation 

 (ing urged by any writer. Such a course is by 

 means nrce.tsary to the improvement of our stock, 

 or, I might add, would it be advisable, even were 

 feasible, and unattended with the great expense 

 t present incidental to it — for, animals brought 

 irect from a different climate, and subjected to 

 ifferent keep from that to which they have been 

 Dng accustomed, would, most probably, (as the 



writer says they bai'e in many instances with ue,) 

 deteriorate. But, I repeat it, sucli a course is not 

 advisable, nor, can I think, advised. The most ju- 

 dicious process to accomplish the desired improve- 

 ment, is well expressed in the following extract 

 from a paper on the subject by Willis (iaylord, Esq., 

 of the Albany Cultivator, whose sound opinions up- 

 on practical matters pertaining to husbandry, have 

 won him an enviable distinction: 



"Our opinion as to the true course to be follow. 

 ed, and the one which we doubt not will be gene- 

 rally adopted, is, for the breeder to select a full 

 bred bull of the kind preferred, possessing those 

 iiualities moat desirable, or indicating that they are 

 inherent in the breed. Mucli is depending on the 

 proper selection of the male, for it is he that stamps 

 most indelibly his character on the progeny. As- 

 certain whether the animals from which he is de- 

 scended, the particular family, we mean, are noted 

 for any particular quality, and what that may be. 

 In the same breed, and of equal purity of blood, 

 animals may be found in which the predominating 

 quality differs essentially. Aptitude to fatten, 

 deep milking, excellence in the yoke, kind hand- 

 ling, &c., may not be prominent in all animals of 

 a breed; and it is for the breeder to select with 

 reference to the qualities most desirable. 



" Having secured bulls of undeni?ible excellence, 

 let the breeder next select from his native stock 

 the best cows he possesses, or that can be procur- 

 ed — those in which the qualities of easy feeding, 

 deep milking, and kind dispositions appear to be 

 the most strongly marked and fixed — and breed 

 from such coivs only, if he hopes to effect a perma- 

 nent improvement in his stock. We have never 

 known an instance in which such a cross did not 

 at once mark and change the character of a stock 

 for the better. 



"Let it be remembered that breeding from cross- 

 es, without recurrence to pure blood, always de- 

 generates; but where the first cross or half blood 

 is bred to a full blood — a h.alf blood heifer to a 

 pure blood bull, for instance — improvement is sure 

 to follow." 



That is the true doctrine. Cross " a bull of un- 

 deniable excellence" with the best cows that can 

 be found among our nntive slock : such a bull is a 

 full blood Durham or Devon. This is as far as the 

 use of imported animals is necessary, in order to 

 efi'ect the improvement of our stock, and it is sup- 

 ported by both reason and experience. In choice 

 of breeds, the Durhams for the pail and the Devons 

 for the yoke, (and perhaps for the shambles,) is, I 

 believe, the selection most approved by those who 

 have had experience with the distinguished foreign 

 bloods. 



The use of imported animals carried only to the 

 above extent, no danger is to be apprehended of 

 our climate or our keep influencing unfavorably the 

 issue of the parents — and the desired characteris- 

 tics of the sire and dam being once fixed upon the 

 offspring, the improvement, (with the exercise of 

 due discretion in subsequent crossings,) would 

 doubtless be permanent, 



Speaking of "the extravagant prices" that hare 

 been paid for foreign breeds, the writer says : 

 " Some of the best milkers, and all our finest 

 beef cattle, have known no relationship to these 

 Durham or Devon, or other bloods." Is this strict- 

 ly so ? On the contrary, were not our New Eng- 

 land cattle originally of Devon extract, and do they 

 not still retain some of the cliaracterislics of that 

 breed .' Speaking of the Devons exhibited at the 

 late Fair of the N. Y. State Agricul. Society, the 

 Albany Cultivator says ; "It is (/left-enern/ infusion 

 of this blonil, which enables .Vtic England to hrin<r 

 forth those thousands of pairs of beautiful red work- 

 ing cattle, which constitute one of the most attrac- 

 tive features of their agricultural exhibitions, and 

 of which tlioy are, and well may be, pardonably 

 proud." See, also, in confirmation of this fact, 

 Colman's Fourth Report. Increase this " infusion" 

 of Devon blood by crossing our best natives with 

 imported full bloods, and wo shall take the wisest 

 step towards improving our stock, so far as working 

 cattle are concerned. 



I would here pay a passing tribute of deserved 

 praise to those gentlemen of wealth and liberality 

 among us Mr Welles and Mr Cushing, in partic- 

 ular — whose noble presents of valuable animals to 

 our agricultural societies, eminently entitle them 

 to the appellation of benefactors of the agricultu- 

 ral community. Such generosity is as honorable 

 to the donors as it is advantageous to the recipi- 

 ents, — and this is no " faint praise." 



To return : — In respect to sheep, the writer man- 

 ifests the same antipathy for foreign breeds. He 

 admits that the Merinos and South Downs " pro- 

 duce wool of superior excellence," but adds, 'they 

 are not generally more valued than our stock that 

 was here before them." If this is so, (which, by 

 the way I do not admit,) it is doubtless because 

 their superior merits are not generally known or 

 appreciated among us. Ask the opinion upon this 

 point, of distinguished and intelligent wool-grow- 

 ers — the Messrs. Morrill, of New York, or Mr .lew- 

 ett, of Vermont, for example, — ask them why it is, 

 if our native breeds are equal to the Merinos and 

 South Downs for fleece, that they give the prefe- 

 rence to the latter, and purchase them at extra cost. 

 The writer speaks of the better quality — "the finer 

 grain" — of the ?nw/(on of our natives, as a prefe- 

 rence for them over the foreign, — but, pray, of how 

 much consequence is mutton to our sheep raisers 

 generally, compared with the value oi wool^ — and 

 for both (juality and quantity of the latter, I think 

 I may say, unhesitatingly, that there are foreign 

 breeds of much higher repute than our natives now 

 are, or probably ever were. 



For imported breeds oi swine, our author has the 

 same patriotic contempt. lie says: "Over and 

 over again, in most every part of our country, where 

 the imported breeds have been kept with our own, 

 the latter have proved superior." That the Berk- 

 shires — the most noted of the foreign breeds — have 

 disappointed the expectations of some, I have heard ; 

 but that they are not superior, taking into account 

 all their merits, to our common native breeds,_will 



